Search

Search is a core plugin that helps you find data in your Obsidian vault by using search terms and operators to narrow down results.

By default, you can find Search in the left sidebar ( lucide-search.svg > icon ). You can also open Search by pressing Ctrl+Shift+F (Windows/Linux) or Command+Shift+F (macOS).

  • Search selected text: If you select text in the editor and open Search with the keyboard shortcut, Search shows you the search results for the selected text.
  • Search recent search terms: Open Search with an empty search term to list recent search terms. Click any of them to use the search term again.
Excluded files

Files matching your Excluded files patterns will not appear in Search results.

Search terms

A search term is the word or phrase that you enter in the search field. Learning how to write search terms effectively can help you quickly find what you're looking for, even in large vaults. Obsidian only searches the contents of notes and canvases.

Each word in the search term is matched independently within each file. To search for an exact phrase, surround it with quotes, for example "star wars". To search for quoted text within an exact phrase, you can escape the quotes by adding a backslash (\) in front of the quote, for example "they said \"hello\" to each other".

You can control whether to return files that contain all the words in your search term, or any of the words:

  • meeting work returns files that contain both meeting and work.
  • meeting OR work returns files that contain either meeting or work.

You can even combine the two in the same search term.

  • meeting work OR meetup personal returns files for work meetings and personal meetups.

You can use parentheses to control the priority of each expression.

  • meeting (work OR meetup) personal returns files that contain meeting, personal, and either work or meetup.

To exclude, or negate, a word from the search results, add a hyphen (-) in front of it:

  • meeting -work returns files that contain meeting but not work.

You can exclude multiple expressions:

  • meeting -work -meetup returns files that contain meeting but not work or meetup.

You can exclude a combination of expressions using parentheses:

  • meeting -(work meetup) returns files that contain meeting but not both work and meetup.

To filter results using the less than (<) and greater than (>) operators, surround them with square brackets ([]) or quotes (""):

  • meeting [duration:<5] returns files where meeting is present, and duration is less than 5.
  • meeting [duration:>5] returns files where meeting is present, and duration is greater than 5.

Search operators

Search operators enable more fine-grained search terms to filter your results even more.

Some operators even allow you to add a nested search term within parentheses, for example: task:(call OR email).

Search operator Description
file: Find text in filename. Matches any file in the vault.

Example: file:.jpg or file:202209.
path: Find text in file path. Matches any file in the vault.

Example: path:"Daily notes/2022-07".
content: Find text in file content.

Example: content:"happy cat".
match-case: Case-sensitive match.

Example: match-case:HappyCat.
ignore-case: Case-insensitive match.

Example: ignore-case:ikea.
tag: Find tag in file.

Example: tag:#work.

Keep in mind that searching for tag:#work will not return results for #myjob/work.

Note: Since tag: ignores matches in code blocks and in non-Markdown content, it's often faster and more accurate than a normal full-text search for #work.
line: Find files that contain at least one line matching x.

Example: line:(mix flour).


Note: Using -line negates the search, meaning it will find files where no line matches x.
block: Find matches in the same block.

Example: block:(dog cat).

Note: Since block: requires Search to parse the Markdown content in every file, it can cause your search term to take longer time to finish.
section: Find matches in the same section (text between two headings).

Example: section:(dog cat).
task: Find matches in a task on a block-by-block basis.

Example: task:call.
task-todo: Find matches in an uncompleted task on a block-by-block basis.

Example: task-todo:call.
task-done: Find matches in a completed task on a block-by-block basis.

Example: task-done:call.

Search properties

You can use data stored in Properties in your search terms.

Use brackets around a property name [property] to return files with that property:

  • [aliases] returns files that contain the aliases property

Use brackets and a colon [property:value] to return files with that property and value:

  • [aliases:Name] returns files where the aliases property value is Name

Use null as a value to find properties that have no value:

  • [aliases:null] returns files where the aliases property exists but has no value
Empty values

The null operator works when a property is empty (e.g., aliases: ), but not when the property contains empty quotes ("") or empty brackets ([]).

Both property and value allow sub-queries, such as parentheses for grouping, the OR operator, double-quotes for exact matching, and regex.

  • [status:Draft OR Published] returns files where the status property value is Draft or Published

Change case sensitivity

By default, search terms are not case sensitive. If you want to search for the exact case of your search term, select Match case ( obsidian-icon-upper-lowercase.svg > icon ) inside the search bar.

This setting can be toggled. If Match case icon is highlighted, that means you’re currently doing a case sensitive search.

Change result sort order

  1. Enter a search term.
  2. Under the search field, select the dropdown on the right.
  3. Select the sort order you want. Default is "File name (A to Z)".

The following options are available:

  • File name (A to Z)
  • File name (Z to A)
  • Modified time (new to old)
  • Modified time (old to new)
  • Created time (new to old)
  • Created time (old to new)

Copy search results

  1. Enter a search term.
  2. Under the search field, select the three dots icon next to the number of results.
  3. Select Copy search results.

Use regular expressions

A regular expression is a set of characters that describe a text pattern. To use regular expressions in your search term, surround the expression with forward slashes (/).

  • /\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}/ matches an ISO 8601 date, such as 2022-01-01.

You can even combine regular expressions with search operators:

  • path:/\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}/ returns files with a date in the file path.

For more information on how to write regular expressions, refer to FreeCodeCamp's Practical Regex guide or Mozilla's Regular expressions.

JavaScript-flavored regular expressions

Regular expressions come in different flavors that may look different from each other. Obsidian uses JavaScript-flavored regular expressions.

Configure search settings

To configure Search, select Search settings ( lucide-sliders-horizontal.svg > icon ) on the right side of the search bar to see the toggles.

Setting Description
Explain search term Breaks down the search terms and explains it in plain text.
Collapse results Toggles whether to show the search context.
Show more context Expands the search result to show more text around the match.

Embed search results in a note

To embed search results in a note, add a query code block:

```query
embed OR search
```

Obsidian Publish doesn't support embedded search results. To see a live rendered example, use the code block above within your vault.

search-query-rendered.png